STUDENTS WHO SUPPORT TRUMP FEAR FOR THEIR SAFETY

NEW YORK CITY: NYU’s pro-Trump students fear for their safety — and grades. They lie in class about their political beliefs. They keep online conversations private. “Trump supporters generally try to keep it hidden from the rest of the student body,” said junior Dylan Perera, 22. He told the NY POST, “They’re afraid of losing friends, being ridiculed in class, getting worse grades and are even afraid of being assaulted and physically hurt.”

Another student reserved a private room on campus — for “security reasons” — to speak to a Post reporter. “Either you’re on their side or you’re a racist f–k, in their eyes,” the student said. “I’ve learned just to bottle up [my response]” to such antagonizing.

The anonymous, 21-year-old Princeton, NJ, native said he was unmasked as a Trump supporter by a professor Friday, even after he had specifically asked in an e-mail that the teacher not bring up his political views.

“He was explaining what platitudes are to the class, and he brought up Trump as an example. How him saying, ‘I’m great,’ is a platitude,” he recalled. “It got a big laugh from the class and then he looked right at me and said, ‘Sorry, I had to get one in.’”

Another junior, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she typically steers clear of public debates that will reveal her pro-Trump beliefs.

“It can get hostile,” she said, recalling recent political spats between students on Facebook. “They’ll usually throw around words like ‘racist’ or ‘bigot’ about Trump and then call the students trying to defend him ‘delusional.’”

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